


blessed was the sunlight (that cleared out all the smoke)

by American_Pandora



Series: all the silhouettes you've made [4]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, bossy!Arianne, sassy!Viserys
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-19 06:51:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9423452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/American_Pandora/pseuds/American_Pandora
Summary: --Arianne, Viserys, and their life in theall the silhouettes you've madeuniverse--





	1. she came from the blood orange tree (284AC)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You honestly cannot mean to wear that!" The girl says, gesturing to the nicest outfit he has, and Viserys is instantly offended. 
> 
> "What's wrong with it?" He asks, outraged. This is his _nicest_ doublet, shiny onyx black satin and Mother did the work on the dragon embroidery herself

Viserys knows he'd met her before, at Elia and Rhaegar's wedding and probably at Rhaegar and Ashara's, but he doesn't really count his first meeting with Arianne Martell until he encounters her at The Water Gardens in 284AC. 

He doesn't know why they leave for The Water Gardens instead of Dragonstone, or why his mother feels the need to go anywhere at all when her belly is swollen with a babe, but he can't deny the farther away they get from King's Landing, the more relaxed his mother gets. 

( _He doesn't know, will never know, that his mother takes him to Dorne because Aerys, in his madness, had disinherited Rhaegar after he'd married Ashara. With Rhaegar, her beautiful, foolish son having called a Great Council, she had no choice. Rhaella will not see her youngest son used as a figurehead against his older brother by some noble with a chip on his shoulder._ )

For Viserys, this is great. It is the manifestation of his wish to see the Dorne that his goodsisters Elia and Ashara talked about incessantly, with the sort of sad smiles that came because you remembered how much you love a thing. Not the sad smiles Mother often gave him when Father had been in her rooms, and there'd been screaming and he asked what was wrong and she said, " _Nothing, Viserys, nothing at all_."

He's introduced to a few people- Doran Martell, Oberyn Martell and his wife, Lyanna Stark. 

Lady Lyanna had a baby on her that Viserys vaguely thinks is of an age with Aegon, but before he can politely enquire on it he's accosted by a girl of an age and height with him who drops out of an overhanging blood orange tree. 

"You honestly cannot mean to wear that!" The girl says, gesturing to the nicest outfit he has, and Viserys is instantly offended. 

"What's wrong with it?" He asks, outraged. This is his _nicest_ doublet, shiny onyx black satin and Mother did the work on the dragon embroidery herself. 

Another girl drops out of the blood orange tree, and it is then that Viserys notices that the two tanned girls are wearing small clothes and what looks like large, shear silk tunics over it. 

_Mayhaps the Dornish are all harlots and hedonists after all, like Father said..._ Viserys thought nervously as he took in their appearance. 

The second girl giggles as he looks at them. "How are you to swim in that, silly? You'd sink." 

He gets the feeling he looks rather stupid with his mouth hanging open. 

Then yet another girl drops from the blood orange tree and Viserys cannot help but wonder if all trees in Dorne grow girls, or if it is just this tree. 

This girl is more covered than the last, in a white longsleeve cotton tunic not as see through as her cohorts', and it's no wonder, for the girl is as pale and blonde as he, though her eyes are blue. "You'll roast, your highness, your clothes are wool and velvet. You'll burn up in them. And you wouldn't want to ruin them in the pools, would you?"

Finally, Viserys thinks, someone who speaks a language he understands. "I'm the blood of the dragon. I don't burn."

It's the first girl who speaks, clearly impatient with the whole thing. "That may be, but in Dorne, it is the sun who rules. Now come on." And then the impervious girl dares to grab his hand and drag him towards what Prince Oberyn had vaguely mentioned was the wing he, his mother, the new baby and the Kingsguard would be staying in. 

As he is drug past his mother, he looks at her, incredulously, as if to say, _Aren't you going to do something?_ He only ever lets Rhaenys and Aegon drag him about like this, and never in front of others, especially never in front of Father. 

Mother just looks at him with the biggest smile on her face that he's ever seen before, and he relaxes, because if Mother, who always worries about him, is not worried, and Ser Lewyn and Ser Jaime aren't worried, then perhaps it is okay. 

When they're out of sight, Rhaella lets out a breath she doesn't know she had been and holds her belly, wondering if she shall meet her babe soon. _Daeron or Baelor or Maekar for a boy, I think, and Daenerys for a girl_. "I think Dorne shall be good for us." 

Oberyn smirks, pulls Lyanna and Jon close. "My Queen, Dorne is good for everyone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first girl mentioned is Arianne, the second girl is Nymeria, and the third is Tyene.


	2. a problematic lack of blood orange trees (288AC/289AC)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He goes to say something suave, something charming that only a Targaryen Prince could say, but what falls out of his mouth isn't even close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's unknown what the banners are for the Daynes of High Hermitage are. So, given the fact that Gerold Dayne of High Hermitage's name is Darkstar, and Hermitage sounds like Hermit crab... I've decided that their banner is an orange hermit crab on a large navy blue star on a white field. This will make sense later on.

Viserys Targaryen leaves The Water Gardens five months later a changed child, everyone who knows him will note. Prince Rhaegar even takes note of it in his journal- a man who rarely wrote on his family or matters of state but instead his thoughts and philosophies and dreams took the time to note his younger brother was "a much changed, nearly new, boy."

It wasn't just that Viserys had gotten tanner (he was as red as the dragons on his banner for the first moon and a half) or that he had taken to imitating the Dornish style of dress in private. 

No, Viserys came back from The Water Garden having been treated as an equal, having treated others as his equal, having been a _child_ and not a prince. 

Most of his anger had turned instead to sass and snark- something Elia and Ashara and even Rhaella would assert to Rhaegar was a very Arianne trait. 

Viserys started to socialize more at court, playing with children he normally wouldn't. He became a leader, a guider of the children. He was fiercely protective of Rhaenys and Aegon and Daenerys and Visenya. 

Visenya adores her uncle, who seems more like a second older brother to her, just like her aunt Dany seems more like a sister, one closer in age to her than her own.

* * *

He nearly doesn't recognize her, when the Dornish Contingent arrives in 288AC for the New Year's Ball. Where is the girl who dropped from the blood orange tree, all long limbs and scraped knees and elbows? 

"Princess Arianne Nymeros Martell." The herald cries, and Viserys has to do a double take. 

This is not Arianne the eight year old with twigs in her hair and lips stained dark orange from the blood oranges of The Water Gardens. This is Arianne, Princess of Dorne, a twelve year old girl on the cusp of womanhood. 

She looks so different- breasts, for starters- but Viserys can still see the same girl he'd known years ago, in the mischievous mouth, the bright eyes. Black, like onyx.

The rest of the Dornish Contingent is announced- there's eight year old Quentyn Martell, Elia's brother Oberyn and his wife, Lyanna, plus his trueborn children Jon and Dorea. His bastards are introduced as well, which will surely be the gossip of court. Obara, still terrifying. Nym, a dark haired beauty. Tyene, as pale and proper as ever. (He wonders how he didn't notice Arianne, flocked as she is by her two favorite cousins.) Sarella, still shy and prompt to hiding in Lady Lyanna's skirts. Allyria Dayne, his brother's second wife's bastard daughter by a Stark. Ellaria and Daemon Sand, the announcing of which causes Sir Lewyn to stiffen behind him.

( _The name pushes in something at his memory, something he associates both with Court and the Water Gardens. Ellaria must be a more common Dornish name than he realized._ )

He recognizes a few more names- Sylva Santagar, the Fowler twins Jeyne and Jennelyn, Deziel Dalt who is tentatively Jennelyn's betrothed, Lord Allard and Lady Esmay Dayne of Starfall and Gerold Dayne of High Hermitage.

The squire they call Darkstar, who is currently looking Rhaenys up and down like she is a piece of meat not a girl of nine, not six years younger than him. 

Viserys doesn't get the chance to do more than bare his teeth- _dragons fight with tooth and claw and flame, crab boy_ before Arianne is in front of him.

She looks beautiful in a silk gown the exact color of blood oranges, the off shoulder top and empire waist cut of the gown teasing at what blooms beneath the flowing fabric. As soon as Viserys thinks the thought he has to resist the urge to gag and shake his head; he has spent far too much time with Elia and Ashara. 

He goes to say something suave, something charming that only a Targaryen Prince could say, but what falls out of his mouth isn't even close. 

"You honestly cannot mean to wear that!" Viserys wants nothing more right then in that moment than to shove his whole fist in his mouth. Arianne looks so truly offended for a moment- he can feel Lewyn become a plank behind him, though the prince does not know it's from laughter- that Viserys wonders if she remembers the Water Gardens at all, and the idea that she doesn't makes him all sorts of achey and sad inside. 

She can only hold that face for so long before she laughs out loud- it's like Elia's, but less restrained, less careful and more careless- and Viserys catches the mirth as her mouth curls, as her eyes twinkle with mischief just like they did when she was eight. 

( _Neither of them notice the eyes of court looking through them, at them. Queen Rhaella, in particular, watches them closely through squinted eyes._ )

"What's wrong with it?" She demands, hands on her hips and Viserys imagines wildly that Nymeria of legend must have looked like this when she put her ships to the torch. When she demanded she wed Mors Martell and help rule as an equal. That her children have her name, too. 

"I don't know," he pauses, "I am lacking in both cousins, blood orange trees, and cousins dropping out of blood orange trees to turn this conversation my way, I'm afraid." 

Arianne laughs again. "You have a sister and a niece, do you not?" 

He waves his hand as though swatting away a particularly persistent fly. "Sisters and nieces are not the same, nor quite as good, as cousins." Ignoring the twin cries of objection from Rhaenys and Daenerys, who had not even been pretending to not be eavesdropping, he continues, "Besides, I'm still lacking a blood orange tree." 

"A tragedy, truly." Arianne mocks before moving down the line to greet his mother and Daenerys, congratulating Rhaella and Ser Bonifer Hasty on their recent nuptials. 

(Dowager Queen and Prince Consort their titles, they also hold title Lord and Lady Castellan of Dragonstone. His mother hates the Red Keep- because of the memory of his father, he knows. He also knows that Rhaella prefers to be called Princess instead of Queen because she was happy as a princess and miserable as a queen.) 

Viserys performs the rest of his duties as prince- greets every member of the Dornish contingent as though they are his old friends. 

After greeting the last of the party- Ellaria Sand and her son Daemon- he'd said "My lady." and kissed her hand and she'd said "My prince." and he'd complemented her child- his eyes, black as ebony that seemed familiar- but it felt like she was looking through him the entirety of the time. As she was leaving, she'd also nodded to Ser Lewyn, saying nothing more than "Ser." before carrying her exhausted child to their rooms. Viserys had frowned at that- it wasn't wrong, of course, but it simply wasn't done, to distract the Kingsguard. 

When Ser Lewyn caught him looking at her, he'd given a roguish smile that reached the eyes. "She's a fine looking lady, isn't she, my prince?" 

Viserys, caught up in how he might procure a fully grown and fruiting blood orange tree, merely looks at his guard and nods. 

Lewyn smiles, black ebony eyes crinkling like crows feet at the corners, before returning to his duty. 

Viserys had to hold in a gasp. 

Daemon Sand had black eyes just like Lewyn's. Just like Elia's. Very similar to Rhaenys' but without the hint of purple. 

Daemon Sand was a Martell. But who was his father? 

His mind immediately jumped to Oberyn Martell- but his good brother had claimed all his bastards, even though they were just girls. 

Could it be Doran? Did he find out about the existence of a son- the boy must be around Aegon's age- and did it tip Mellario of Norvos into a rage, causing her to leave for her homeland without her children? 

Or maybe... Viserys head span... maybe the rumor that Elia had twins when she birthed Aegon is true. Maybe the twin didn't die, maybe Rhaegar saw the boy and decided he couldn't be a third head of the dragon and sent him away. That would explain the name Daemon. 

Viserys faintly felt the need to sit down. 

A tug on his shirt had him spinning around, for some reason expecting the ghost of his father (who still haunted his dreams) to be there. 

No specter was there; it was, instead, the Lady Nym. 

"Arianne wondered if you wanted to join her for some refreshments after the feast tonight. She told me to beg if I must." Nym batted her thick eyelashes, clasping her hands to make her elbows push her breasts (larger than Arianne's) together. "Please, Prince Viserys? Vis?" 

Viserys smiled boyishly. "I would love to, Lady Nymeria. I shall make the appropriate arrangements. If you have any trouble, send for me immediately." 

They curtsied and bowed at the same time. On the way up, Viserys grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it. 

Nym giggled and went on her way, hips swishing in a more dramatic way than necessary. 

"I think you've shaken the court." Ser Lewyn quasi-whispered as the room stared at him. 

Viserys could only shrug. "Good." He said plaintively and in a normal tone of voice as he walked to his quarters to ready for the feast. 

"Sometimes the court needs shaken up."


End file.
